A new method for loading Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Nematoda: Aphelenchoididae) on adult Monochamus alternatus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).

A new method was developed for loading the pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner et Buhrer) Nickle, on the beetle Monochamus alternatus Hope. Postdiapause beetle larvae were sterilized with 70 and 99.9% aqueous ethanol and placed singly in flasks where B. xylophilus reproduced on the fungus Ophiostoma minus (Hedgcock) H. et P. Sydow that had been grown on autoclaved barley grain and Pinus densifiora Sieb. et Zucc. wood chips. The fungus produced a large nematode population that developed to a high proportion of third-stage dispersal juveniles that molted to the fourth-stage dispersal juveniles. The survival rate was 80%, and the mean nematode load was 10,096. It took a mean of 5 wk to obtain the nematode-infested beetles after the initiation of nematode rearing.